Zeke's Charmeleon
by Martial Arts Master
Summary: Our heroes battle a trainer who tells them of the Char village, where the villagers hold a heroic Charmeleon in high regard. Rated PG-13 because somebody says "damn it" once. I changed this from Action/Adventure to Action/Adventure/Drama. Please review!


Zeke's Charmeleon  
by Martial Arts Master  
Pokemon and all related characters are copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Creatures Inc., Satoshi Tajiri, 4Kids, TV Tokyo, and Wizards of the Coast. I made up Zeke, though. This story takes place after the "No Big Woop!" episode. With that, I'll start the story.  
  
***  
  
It was noon, Ash, Misty, and Brock were walking through the forest, and they were getting exhausted.  
"Phew, it feels like we've been walking for miles," Ash said.  
"Same with me," Misty said.  
"Ditto for that," Brock said.  
Pikachu let out an exhausted moan to show agreement.  
Suddenly a male trainer in a blue shirt and tan jeans with red hair ran up to them.  
"I couldn't help but overhear those last comments," the trainer said. "I'll tell you what I'll do. If one of you can beat me in a Pokemon battle, I'll tell you where there's a village you can stop and rest!"  
Suddenly our heroes got hopeful looks on their faces.  
"All right! For that, I'll battle you right now!" Ash said.  
"All right!" the other trainer replied. The other trainer brought out a Poke Ball, threw it, and said, "Go, Clefable!"  
A Clefable came out of the Poke Ball.  
"Wow, it looks so cute!" Misty said.  
"Hmm...I choose Chikorita!" Ash said, sending out Chikorita.  
Chikorita gave a happy squeal at being sent out, and faced Clefable, growling, ready for battle.  
"This is gonna be easy, so I'll let YOU make the first move!" Ash said.  
"I only use one move, but it's so unpredictable that it catches opposing Pokemon off guard, winning ME the majority of my battles!" the other trainer boasted. "Clefable, Metronome!"  
Clefable waved its fingers back and forth. Then, it stopped and twirled its fingers around rapidly, causing a twister to head towards Chikorita.  
"What is THAT?" Ash asked. He brought out his Pokedex, which said, "Twister. A Dragon-type attack."  
Chikorita tried to dodge, but one leg got caught in the twister, and pretty soon ALL of Chikorita was caught in the twister. Chikorita was sent up into the air.  
"Chikorita, Razor Leaf attack!" Ash said.  
"Clefable, Metronome again," the other trainer commanded.  
Chikorita, while still in the air, swirled its leaf and sent some razor-sharp leaves at Clefable, and Chikorita landed on the ground.  
Meanwhile, Clefable was waving its fingers again. When it stopped, a bone appeared in its hand out of nowhere, and Clefable threw the bone at Chikorita. The leaves cut right through the bone, and they hit Clefable.  
The parts of the bone glanced almost harmlessly off of Chikorita.  
"Damn it! Ground-type attacks don't work very well against Grass-type Pokemon!" the other trainer realized.  
"Chikorita, Tackle attack!" Ash called out.  
Chikorita ran as fast as it could, and rammed into Clefable, knocking it down.  
"Clefable, try another Metronome!" the other trainer commanded.  
Clefable waved its fingers again. When it stopped, it jumped up into the air, came down, and hit Chikorita with one of its tiny wings, knocking Chikorita down just like Chikorita had knocked Clefable down earlier. Obviously Clefable had just used Wing Attack.  
But Chikorita, stubborn as it was, got up again, even though the attack, being a Flying-type attack, had greatly damaged Chikorita, a Grass-type Pokemon.  
"Chikorita, Razor Leaf again!" Ash shouted.  
"This isn't good," Brock said. "Ash doesn't know many of Chikorita's attacks, and Clefable's Metronome is so unpredictable that it can catch Chikorita off-guard, since Chikorita doesn't know what to expect."  
"Then Chikorita's in real trouble!" Misty said.  
Chikorita sent some more Razor Leaves at Clefable, but this time Clefable cartwheeled out of the way.  
"Clefable, Metronome once again!" the other trainer said.  
Clefable waved its fingers yet again. This time its left fist froze into ice, and it tried to punch Chikorita, obviously using Ice Punch. Chikorita ducked, and the punch missed it.  
"Chikorita, Vine Whip!" Ash told his Chikorita. (Author's Note: If you're wondering why Chikorita can use Vine Whip in the show and not the game, it's because in the game, a baby Chikorita can inherit the Vine Whip move sometimes.)  
Chikorita's vines headed out towards Clefable, restraining it.  
"Clefable, you know what to do!" the other trainer said.  
Clefable managed to move its fingers despite the vines wrapped around it. It began to glow orange.  
"What's it doing?" Ash asked Misty and Brock.  
Misty shrugged, but Brock paled.  
"Ash, it's going to use Sky Attack!" Brock shouted. "Sky Attack is the most powerful Flying-type attack there IS! Chikorita's a Grass-type Pokemon, so this is the worst thing that can happen to it! Sky Attack's even more powerful than Fire Blast, and BOTH are strong against Chikorita!"  
"Oh no!" Ash cried out. Any minute now Clefable was going to use Sky Attack. If what Brock said was true, Chikorita would be seriously injured by this attack. Ash couldn't let that happen.  
"I forfeit!" Ash said, recalling Chikorita.  
Clefable ended up using Sky Attack on a tree, and the tree was reduced to dust.  
"Hmm..." the other trainer said. "I win, but any other trainer would have tried to have their Pokemon knock Clefable out before it could use Sky Attack. You obviously care a lot about your Chikorita, and I don't meet many trainers who care that much about their Pokemon. So I'll tell you what; I'll tell you where the village is anyway!"  
"All right! Thanks a lot!" Ash said.  
"The village is southwest of here," the other trainer said, pointing in that direction. Then he ran off.  
"All right, let's go to the village!" Misty said.  
  
When they arrived...  
  
"Greetings and welcome!" someone said to them. "I am one of the villagers of the Char village, and if you can prove you have or once had a member of the Char family, you can rest in this village for FREE!"  
"What do you mean by the Char family?" Ash asked.  
"Charmander, Charmeleon, or Charizard," the villager explained.  
"Well I once had a Charizard," Ash said.  
"Can you prove it?" the villager asked.  
Ash grinned.  
  
After a phone call to Professor Oak...  
  
"Interesting...a Charizard that cost you the Pokemon League," the villager said. "Well, I guess you're on the level. You can spend one night here for free."  
"Why do you guys like the Char family so much?" Misty said. "If you had any brains you'd be worshipping WATER Pokemon, not FIRE Pokemon."  
Ash and Brock sweatdropped. Misty liked Water Pokemon enough to be biased with them.  
"Because the village elder has a Charmeleon, and it's a HERO!" the villager exclaimed. "It helps us out whenever we're in trouble! In tribute, every member of this village has a Charmander for a pet."  
"A hero?" Brock asked.  
"Yep!" the villager said. "I'll take you to some other people whose lives have been touched by the great Charmeleon. I myself nearly got killed by a wild Rattata, but Charmeleon stepped in and saved me."  
  
At the center of town...  
  
"Of course Zeke's Charmeleon is a hero!" another villager said to our heroes.  
"Who's Zeke?" Ash asked.  
"The village elder who owns the Charmeleon, of course," someone else replied.  
"Charmeleon helped me get down from a tree I climbed!" a little girl said.  
"It stopped a bully from picking on me!" a small boy said.  
"Once there was a flood, and Charmeleon risked its life to get us all on top of the houses!" an old lady said. "The flood didn't reach us, and we were saved!"  
"Another time the whole village caught on fire, and Charmeleon helped everybody to evacuate the village. Again, everybody survived, and we were able to rebuild the village," a middle-aged man said.  
"Ok, ok, ok!" Ash said, putting his hands up in surrender. "We get it, already! Zeke's Charmeleon's a terrific Pokemon!"  
Then Brock thought of something.  
"But WHY does it do heroic things so much?" Brock asked.  
"Go to Zeke's house, he'll explain it to you," said the same villager who had met them when they had entered the village and who had been saved once from a Rattata.  
Our heroes began walking around the village, looking for Zeke's house. They reasoned that it, belonging to the village elder, would stand out from all the other houses.  
They were right. They soon came to a house that had a big sign on it. The sign said, "Village Elder's House".  
"This must be the place," Ash said.  
Our heroes went inside.  
  
Inside, they met an old man with a Charmeleon standing next to him.  
"Ah, good afternoon," the old man said. Obviously this was Zeke, the village elder. "What brings you here?"  
"We'd like to know what's up with your Charmeleon," Ash said. "Why is it trying so hard to be a hero?"  
"That's the way it is," Zeke replied. "It has a very high moral standard, and it can't stand to see anyone else in distress. It's taken it upon itself to help out anyone in need."  
Brock took another look at Charmeleon and was amazed.  
"I can't believe how physically fit that Charmeleon is!" Brock said. "I don't see any extra fat, it looks very agile, and it's muscular! What's up with that?"  
"Charmeleon exercizes every day," Zeke said. "It also NEVER eats any junk food. It believes that it won't be able to help out anyone else if it isn't always physically fit."  
"Does this Charmeleon have any flaws at all?" Misty said. "Sounds like it's perfect!"  
"No Pokemon is perfect," Zeke replied. "Charmeleon's flaw is that it's TOO considerate. I always fear that one day it's going to get itself killed, and I've been trying to convince it to retire from heroics, but it won't listen to me."  
Charmeleon nodded.  
"I wish MY Charizard had been that good-hearted when IT was a Charmeleon," Ash grumbled.  
"Actually I was very lucky," Zeke said. "When I first got my Charmeleon when it was a Charmander, I thought it would have a fiery temper. But it turned out to be a nice Pokemon, and that niceness grew until it became the hero the villagers view it as."  
  
Outside Zeke's house, Butch and Cassidy were hiding in the bushes. Yes, that's right, Butch and Cassidy. Jessie and James hadn't found the village like our heroes and Butch and Cassidy did.  
"Well, well, did you hear that?" Cassidy asked Butch.  
"I certainly did," Butch said, rubbing his hands together with glee. "I heard how perfect that Charmeleon is. It'll be perfect for the boss!"  
"It's not perfect," Cassidy reminded him. "It's TOO considerate."  
"Yeah, but any Pokemon can crack under torture, and we can turn that goody-goody into one of the meanest fighters we have; completely RUTHLESS even!" Butch said.  
With that, Butch and Cassidy both laughed maniacally.  
  
"No wonder everyone has a Charmander," Ash said. "Just like that one villager said, everyone in the village regards Charmeleon as a great hero."  
"This Charmeleon is one-of-a-kind," Zeke said wistfully. "It's too bad not all Pokemon are like it. It is like Sir Galahad in medival legend."  
"Who's Sir Galahad?" Ash asked.  
"Sir Galahad was a knight who did many good deeds," Zeke replied. "Being good and doing good was as easy to him as it was for him to breathe."  
Charmeleon was beginning to get embarassed at being compared to such a great knight, and one could tell it was embarassed by the look on its face. Zeke saw this and was about to move the subject to something else, when somebody screamed outside.  
Our heroes, Zeke, and Charmeleon ran outside to see what was going on.  
Butch and Cassidy were standing in the middle of the village, firing guns into the air. Real guns, too, with real bullets.  
Butch and Cassidy saw our heroes, Zeke, and Charmeleon, and they smiled.  
"I knew that would draw that goody-two-shoes Charmeleon out!" Butch said.  
"Now be a good little Charmeleon and come with us," Cassidy said in a sweet tone of voice.  
Charmeleon gave an emphatic grunt that even a moron could guess meant "no".  
Butch and Cassidy got mad.  
"Well if you won't come with us we're gonna have to _force_ you to come with us!" Butch said. He tried to fire his gun at Charmeleon's feet, but the gun was out of bullets. Cassidy tried the same thing and fared no better, her gun having also run out of bullets.  
"Drat! We'll just have to use our Pokemon!" Butch said.  
"You mean _I_ will," Cassidy said. "_You_, Butch, don't have any Pokemon, remember?"  
Butch sweatdropped.  
"I forgot," he said.  
"Raticate, Drowzee, go!" Cassidy said, sending out Raticate and Drowzee. Ash recognized Raticate from the breeding center incident, and he also recognized Drowzee from the incident on Mandarin Island.  
Meanwhile, the villagers, having not heard any more gunfire, came back to see what was going on. They saw the two Team Rocket members, and they saw their Pokemon. They also saw Charmeleon.  
"Our hero can handle those losers!" one villager said confidently.  
"Yeah, it's the best! It'll win _easily_!" another one said.  
"Don't bet on it!" Cassidy said. "Drowzee, Psychic attack!"  
Drowzee made some hand motions. Suddenly Charmeleon was telekinetically lifted up into the air.  
"Raticate, Charmeleon's defenseless now!" Cassidy said, laughing evilly. "Tackle attack!"  
Raticate used its Tackle on Charmeleon, who couldn't break free of the Psychic attack.  
"Hey, two against one is cheating!" said the same man who had spoken of the flood.  
"Our hero, the great Charmeleon, will eventually overcome the nefarious Psychic attack!" someone else shouted.  
"What are you talking about?!" Ash asked them angrily. "You don't really expect Charmeleon to be able to break free of telekinesis, do you?"  
"Charmeleon can handle ANYTHING!" a little girl said.  
"Yeah, it's never failed us before!" a middle-aged woman said.  
Meanwhile, Raticate was repeatedly tackling Charmeleon while Charmeleon was defenseless. Charmeleon began to weaken under the repeated attacks.  
Now the villagers could see that their hero wasn't the perfect Pokemon they thought it was, and that Charmeleon could indeed lose a battle.  
Meanwhile, Charmeleon was beginning to suffer. Even it couldn't take a repeated beating by the combined telekinesis by Drowzee and tackles from Raticate for too long.  
"Listen up! Our hero is suffering, and we cannot let it down!" said the same villager who was the first to meet our heroes.  
"Yeah!" the villagers shouted.  
Many villagers released their Charmanders. The Charmanders formed a circle around Raticate.  
Raticate looked at them all nervously. It didn't like what it expected was coming.  
It was right. The Charmanders all used their Flamethrower attacks on Raticate, and Raticate fainted under their combined might.  
"Curse you, Raticate, you can't do anything right!" Cassidy said, recalling Raticate.  
"Now the battle is fair!" Zeke shouted. "You can't have Drowzee keep using its Psychic and use another attack at the same time!"  
"You're right, but I don't need the Psychic anymore!" Cassidy said. "Drowzee, Poison Gas attack!"  
Drowzee released Charmeleon from the telekinetic hold and sent some poisonous gas at it. Charmeleon, however, however, swung its tail and used its Ember attack on the gas. The gas ignited and exploded, knocking Drowzee over.  
"Drowzee, Pound attack now!" Cassidy said.  
Drowzee got up and rushed over to Charmeleon, ready to pound it.  
Charmeleon, however, used its Slash attack and slashed Drowzee in the face, drawing blood.  
"Oh no!" Cassidy said.  
The villagers cheered.  
"Hmph! We ain't done yet!" Butch broke in, having not said anything for a while.  
"That's right!" Cassidy said. "Drowzee, Hypnosis! Take control of Charmeleon and FORCE it to come with us!"  
Drowzee nodded and began doing a weird hula-resembling dance. Charmeleon, however, used its Flamethrower, forcing Cassidy to change tactics.  
"Drowzee, Confusion!" Cassidy commanded.  
Drowzee telekinetically deflected the flame, but Charmeleon jumped aside and used _another_ Flamethrower, knocking Drowzee out.  
Cassidy cursed, recalling Drowzee.  
"We'll get you for this someday," she promised, and she and Butch ran out of the village.  
  
The next day...  
  
Our heroes were waving good-bye to Zeke, his Charmeleon, and the villagers.  
"Thanks to you, we've learned a great lesson," Zeke said. "We now know that Charmeleon is not perfect, and that although it can do many great things, it cannot do the impossible."  
"Happy to help!" Misty said.  
"Just make sure to raise that Charmeleon well, Zeke!" Brock said.  
Our heroes then left the village.  
  
The End  
  
***  
  
E-mail all questions and comments to bleifer@msn.com. 


End file.
